One more sail deserves mention. It was Bill’s
idea, and it came near to ending his career the first
day he tried it. It had no spars at all, but
was merely a strip of cloth of somewhat triangular
shape. The upper side was tied to the head, and
the two corners to the wrists, while the lower portion
was tied to the ankles. This converted him into
a huge white-winged bat. Bill had to try it at
once, even though the rest of the sails were not finished,
and a very comical spectacle he made as he flapped
his wings in his endeavors to tack. When the wind
was too strong for him he had merely to drop his arms
and thus lower sail. At length he became tired
of holding his arms out at full length, and I got him
a stick to put over his shoulders and rest his arms
on. But that stick was Bill’s undoing,
for coming around a sudden bend in the canal he caught
the full force of the wind, which knocked him flat
on his back before he could disentangle himself from
the stick and lower sail. It took us some time
to bring him back to consciousness, and a very scared
lot of boys we were for a while. However, the
lesson was a good one, for after that we were very
cautious in experimenting with sails that had to be
tied on, such as the Danish rig and the lanteen rig,
before Reddy invented the mast step.

It was not until the day after Christmas that the
sails were all completed, but then there was scarcely
any wind blowing and we could not attempt the expedition
to the island.

[Illustration: Fig. 21. Bat Wing Sail.]

CHAPTER III.

SNOW SHOES, SKIS AND SWAMP SHOES.

The next day, Sunday, it began to snow, and we realized
that our chance of skating up to Willow Clump Island
was spoiled. All the afternoon it snowed, and
the next morning we woke to find the ground covered
to a depth of eight inches and snow still falling.
But who ever heard of a boy complaining because there
was snow on the ground? Here were new difficulties
to overcome, new problems to solve, and new sports
provided for our amusement. There was no disappointment
shown by any of the members of the S. S. I. E. E.
of W. C. I., as they met in the woodshed immediately
after breakfast to discuss proceedings for the day.
There seemed to be but one way of reaching the island,
and that was by means of snow shoes. Bill had
only a vague idea of how snow shoes were made.

Chair Seat Snow Shoe.

The first pair was made from a couple of thin wooden
chair seats which we found in the shed. They
proved quite serviceable, being very light and offering
a fairly large bearing surface. The chair seats
were trimmed off at each side to make the shoes less
clumsy, and a loop of leather was fastened near the
center of each shoe, in which the toe could be slipped.
This shoe possessed the disadvantage of being too flat
and of picking up too much snow when used.